Lawrence Wright’s research on Al Qaeda took place over five
years and four continents, yet he believes our knowledge of what
led to 9/11 has only breached the tip of the iceberg.
That can hardly be attributed to Wright not doing his part.
After being denied repeated visa requests to work as a journalist,
Wright first gained access to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a
“mentor” for the English-language Saudi Gazette.
Six hundred interviews later, and Wright had written The
Looming Tower, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and is
widely regarded as the seminal work on the men who created Al
Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
But whileThe Looming Tower suppressed the man for the
journalist, My Trip to Al Qaeda allows the man to explain
his unique impression on how America is perceived not only on the
“Arab street,” but in Al Qaeda meeting rooms and training
camps.
My Trip to Al Qaeda is more complement to The
Looming Tower than replacement, understandable, given that the
book is nearly 600 pages and the play is just under an hour and a
half. Having experienced both, it is tough to figure what someone
could get out of the production if they hadn’t read the book.
Anyone who’s tried renting the movie instead of reading the book
can appreciate the difference.
Among the lessons Wright absorbed from his travels, Al Qaeda’s
ability to provide for the needs of young Arab men in the Middle
East stood out above all. “Al Qaeda offered jihadis housing, health
care, a decent monthly salary,” and one round-trip plane ticket
each year, said Wright in the media kit for The Looming
Tower. The jihad business was (is) a profitable one for poor
Saudis in a nation with a virtually no economy, plenty of angst to
burn, and plenty of frustrated young men to burn it.
“I want to open up a dialogue on these issues,” Wright insists,
despite the format of his show, which by definition demands
monologues, adding that he’ll “sometimes” do question-and-answer
with the audience, “but usually I’m pretty wiped out by the end of
a show.”
WRIGHT’S EXPERTISE ON Al Qaeda began with The Looming
Tower. But Wright has studied the effects of “religion and how
it motivates people” for the last 30 years. From the disconnected
Amish to extremist Muslims, faith, and the moral high ground of
feeling that they’re doing God’s Work is the tie that binds; what
differs is the manner of expression.
Wright’s interest in the Middle East also predates 9/11. He
wrote The Siege in 1998 and joining the Council on Foreign
Relations in 2004. A box office flop its author now considers
“premature” at the time of its November 1998 release, The
Siege reflects an anxiety that America, under terrorist attack
would descend into martial law. After a string of explosions, the
military packs Arab- Americans into cages, and martial law rules
the streets of New York. While Wright can concede that we’re a ways
away from military rule, he does believe that, in our quest for
security, we’ve lost a sense of our values.
In the wake of 9/11, The Siege became every bit as
relevant as it was premature three years prior. Instantly, the
one-time box office failure became the most rented movie in
America.
My Trip to Al Qaeda, meanwhile, sets out to inspire a
reappraisal of our values and whether we want the government
knowing what books we check out of the library, or if America
should use torture against suspected terrorists.
He cites a personal encounter with the FBI as an example of how
far we’ve fallen — yet another example of Wright the man
explaining the trials of Wright the journalist. After returning
home to write The Looming Tower, FBI agents showed up at
his door armed with questions about “suspicious” calls he had made
to London. When one of his agents asked about Wright’s daughter,
who had no role in her father’s book, Wright saw red.
“Had they been bugging my phone calls the entire time? How’d
they know my daughter’s name? Who did these people think they were,
to disturb my privacy and make me answer for it?”
Wright never saw the agents again.
Though some might find it odd that a journalist would try his
hand at monologue theatre, Wright’s audiences never seemed to mind.
Others may argue that Wright, who jokingly refers to himself as the
first profiteer from 9/11 (due to the Siege’s success), is
trying to match that distinction on the back end. But as the author
sees it, America is still walking that tightrope between liberty
and security. 9/11 isn’t history, it’s current events.
Audiences agree. My Trip to Al Qaeda was brought back
by popular demand for two extra nights during a recent run at the
Kennedy Center (D.C.). Last year it had a six-week run during the
New Yorker’s Culture Project and has been greeted by standing
ovations and packed houses nationally.
But now that he’s had some success on stage, don’t expect Wright
to abandon the craft that got him there.
Wright maintains: “There’s something really powerful about
journalism when it’s done the way it’s supposed to be done.”
